The “Moscow Nights” collection — two extra songs

When we recorded “Moscow Nights” (DE 3339), Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s collection of sentimental postwar songs, there were two on the original program that were cut from the final sequence on the CD. Once the collection was put together in its original CD sequence, Dmitri decided that these two songs might be more appropriate for a Russian audience than for an international one, and that the balance of song texts might be too heavily tilted toward the patriotic if we left them in. So out they went.

But in the meantime, those two patriotic songs have been heard by great numbers of Russian audiences in tour performances with Dmitri and his favorite collaborator, American conductor Constantine Orbelian. It seems to us that it’s time to share them with an international audience through our Delos blog.

The first song, “Rodina,” is scheduled for a Gala on July 9, at the “Slavyanski Bazar” Festival in Vitebsk. Dmitri will also be singing Escamillo’s Aria from “Carmen” (“Heroes and Villains,” DE 3365) on the Gala. On the July 10 Festival schedule we find Dmitri and Constantine doing an entire program of Russian Romances (many from “I Met You, My Love” DE 3293) and a number of those haunting Songs of the War Years (“Where Are You, My Brothers?” DE 3315).

For more samples and information on the album “Moscow Nights” take a look and listen through our 37-for-37 posting on the album!

Here are the two extra “Moscow Nights” songs in their entirety.

Rodina
Motherland
[Tulikov/Polukhin]:

My Motherland, my native land!
My Motherland, my springtime and my song!
Through proud destiny and bright dreams,
We are bound together forever!
May the sky over this land be blue,
And may dawn’s rays be golden!

My Motherland, I sing your praises!
My Motherland, I trust in your wisdom!
All your fates and all your troubles
I share with you, my land!
Give me a task that makes my heart sing!
And trust me as I trust you!

I my v to vremia budem zhit’
And we will live in that time
[Doloukhanian/Lisjanskii]

When from the height you have reached
You, Motherland, look ahead,
Your excited eyes, gazing upward,
Involuntarily touch my heart.
And I see that promised hour,
The hour troubled by nothing,
When women can forget the war,
And can be calm about us.

When the world can’t breathe in enough freedom,
And one can touch the stars,
And happiness has come to stay,
In every dwelling.
And the soul is full of pride,
And life is triumphant all around,
And youth was not wasted,
And every man is my brother and friend.

The Earth will be too small to contain all the happiness,
And all people will become friends.
And life will turn into a beautiful song,
And we will live in that time!
And life will turn into a beautiful song,
And we will live in that time!